THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408170026
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MONIQUE WILLIAMS, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
IF YOU CALLED the Dana Buchman company and asked to talk to Dana, you'd soon find out that there actually is such a person there.
Unlike many design firms with fictitious names or names of long defunct designers, Dana Buchman is a real flesh-and-bone designer behind the collection bearing her name.
And as real as she is - so are her clothes.
In an age when fashion often means frivolity, Buchman offers style to professional women who don't want to have to reinvent themselves with each season and won't spend their kids' inheritance on their wardrobe.
A division of the mega-manufacturer Liz Claiborne, Buchman's classic sportswear division was launched in 1986 after she spent years as a Liz Claiborne knitwear designer.
It comes as no surprise that her division has, in the past three years, enjoyed a tripling in business - up to $90 million. Her designs are modern and beautiful.
``For me, designing is a personal expression of who I am . . . wife, mother, business person and friend . . . the many roles women all over the country are trying to balance,'' Buchman says.
Born in Tennessee, Buchman graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and went on to win the Dallas Fashion Award for Sportswear in 1991, '92 and '93.
What's most noticeable in her collection is her sense of coloring and her choice of great fabrics. While her designs and silhouettes are simple, her detailing is luxurious.
Her clothes, she says, are inspired by real women's answers - like what works from day to evening, what fabrics work best for travel, and how to add comfort to clothing.
``Great clothes have a life of their own,'' Buchman says, ``a spirit animated by the wearer.
``There is a wonderful feeling when you're not thinking about the way you look. You're just feeling and being you.''
In 1989, designer Karen Harman joined Buchman as co-designer, and the division has grown to include dresses and petite and large sizes.
Harman brought with her impressive credentials - she was the design director at Christian Dior Separates.
Harman says that her driving force is the customer.
The woman Harman designs for ``is bright, sensual, funny. She loves clothes, hates pretension and prefers the sporty to the decorative,'' she says. ``She demands quality, beauty and luxury of ease. I wouldn't give her anything less.''
Harman says that when she designs, she sees ``a woman in motion, sprinting up stairs, negotiating through traffic, running along the beach'' - in short, a real woman with a real life.
For fall, the Buchman sportswear collection includes the new longer jackets in wool crepe and baroque tapestry paisleys, wrap skirts, silk charmeuse blouses, velvet-trimmed shirts and tank tops and tunics in cheetah prints. Price points are skirts and blouses about $160, jackets at $300.
The Dana Buchman collection can be found locally at Leggett and Hecht's. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
A silk crepe tunic ($198) and scarf ($68) in baby cheetah print from
Dana Buchman answers the need for day-into-evening dressing.
Ruffles on a silk charmeuse blouse ($168) soften a tailored suit
with crepe wool jacket ($310) and wrap skirt ($152) by Buchman.
by CNB